Kabul - The deputy of the Afghan Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Omar announced Wednesday that the militants would launch a new "strong and robust" operation in Afghanistan to counter more than 25,000 additional US and NATO forces due to arrive in the country this year. "As the US and NATO wants to send more troops to Afghanistan, the Afghans too sense the need for a strong and robust operation to counter the new forces," Mullah Brodar Akhund, the Taliban movement's number two leader, said in a statement posted on their website.

Islamabad, Apr. 29 : The Pakistan Army on Wednesday launched an areal offensive on the Taliban in Buner district.

The Pakistan army is said to be on its final leg of operations in Buner. So far, 70 Taliban fighters have been killed in the intensive offensive.

North western Buner district is about 100 kilometers from Islamabad.

Television reports said army troops are being parachuted onto strategic heights in different areas of Buner District of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to flush the militants out of the region.

Islamabad, Apr. 29 : The Taliban has forcibly captured three houses and ten shops belonging to people of the Sikh community in the Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after they failed to fulfill their demands of huge protection money.

According to the sources, armed Taliban gunmen forced all the 24 family members of one Kalyan Singh out of their houses and shops.

Lahore, Apr. 29 : Infuriated by the military operation against the Taliban in which 70 extremists have been killed so far, the Tehreek-e-Nifaaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) has warned of launching a `storm' across Pakistan.

TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad's son Rizwanullah Farooq said the peace accord between the government and the TNSM is on the verge of collapse, and if that happens, the whole country would have to bear the consequences.

Peshawar, Apr. 29 : The Swat chapter of the Taliban has warned the media not to promote `anti-Taliban coverage'.

Pamphlets warning media houses were found scattered at the office premises of several TV channels and newspapers reporting on developments in the region.

Islamabad- Pakistani security forces launched operations against the Taliban in an area captured last week by militants, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Meanwhile, troops finished a similar offensive in another northern district near Islamabad, killing up to 75 rebels, the military said.

Jet planes and helicopter gunships targeted militant positions in the mountains surrounding the Buner Valley in the Buner district, 100 kilometres north-west of Islamabad, Major General Athar Abbas told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital.